A Mistake Too Great to Hide
by patientalien
Summary: Virgil remembers


**title** A Mistake Too Great to Hide  
**author** **patientalien**  
**rating** PG  
**summary** Virgil remembers  
**Notes** I've owed **citizenjess** a fic for like 8 months now. This is a late/early birthday/Christmas/Valentine's day gift for her. Title and cut-text from "New Divide" by Linkin Park.

* * *

It wasn't always like this. The history is not one he would share with the current Mighty One, not yet anyway. He knows the bits and pieces, the small things. He doesn't know - cannot know - the rest. The pain and the failure are things Virgil does not wish to pass on to his young charge. There will be a time to share the story, but now is not the time.

The Mighty One does not need to know that his most bitter enemy was once a man. Before the monster, before the Underworld, Skullmaster had been... human. A particularly driven human, a human gifted with the talents needed to manipulate the Lemurian magics, but a human nonetheless.

Sometimes, in moments of weakness, Virgil remembers. Nearly ten thousand years is a long time to hold memories, but he is long-lived, he is capable of pulling them up from the recesses of his mind, turn them over, wonder on the what-ifs. Nearly ten thousand years ago, he had met a man, an Atlantean, come to Lemuria to learn and study. Atlantis was new, then, compared to the Motherland of Mu, more focused on scientific advancedment and less on the scholarly, less on the arcane magic. Those considered worthy were sent to Lemuria, and Skullmaster - though that was not his name, then - came.

Virgil remembers, too, his calling. While others of his kind were adventurous, seeking to explore and spread their advancements throughout what was, then, a sparsely-populated globe, Virgil preferred the books, the scrolls, the prophecies. He had never been excited by the idea of adventure - such an irony, now. But he could teach, he could impart wisdom. He was chosen to be among those who trained the Atlanteans who came to their shores.

Skullmaster - not his name, then, and his name is lost to time and grief - had impressed him during the readiness period, the choosing of the pupils. He chose Skullmaster, saw in him the desire, and the talents.

He taught as much as he could, and perhaps taught too much. Skullmaster, or who he was then, soaked it up and made it into his own. Virgil didn't see then what his friend - for that is what they were - was. For he knows now that Skullmaster did not turn evil, that the darkness had always been there, and he had been fooled.

His foolishness cost him everything. He will never tell the Mighty One how Lemuria fell. Even Norman does not know the depths of it, was called too late to be a part of what happened, and Virgil can never say the words. He will never be able to say, clearly, to another, "It was my fault." He thinks it often, and it is the driving force behind his steadfast reliance on the prophecies. He must defeat Skullmaster. The Mighty One must triumph.

Lemuria's destruction, brought on by Virgil's blindness and Skullmaster's machinations, was sudden. Much like Atlantis years and years later, Skullmaster manipulated and used the Arcana against them. It was over in a matter of hours, and in the end Virgil was left. Virgil and, of course, Skullmaster.

He will never know how he came to be spared. He is sure it is not due to any sort of good will from Skullmaster's part. He had, after all, only acted in the role of friend and student. In his darkest moments he wonders if it was meant to be punishment, a cruel reminder that he is the last of his kind.

Using the magic learned from the now-destroyed civilizations, Skullmaster transformed himself. He was still a man when he harnessed the souls of Atlantis; they recognized him as one of them, trusted him, saw him as a wise advisor. After that, whatever soul he himself may have once possessed hardened; he used his power to build himself up as a monster, a being of absolute power, a being that was feared. He did not just want to be loved as a ruler of Earth - he wanted obedience, he wanted the fear, and the fear made him grow and change.

The Mighty One does not need to know how Virgil came to discover the prophecy in which he himself is so deeply entrenched. He does not need to know how Virgil cast aside his grief and the all-encompassing loneliness of being the _last _to find the first Mighty One.

The Cosmic Cap was different then, too, but Virgil forged it himself using the most ancient of Lemurian magic. Such things were never his strength, but circumstances as they were, he had little choice. He found the first Mighty One, Maximus, who was more than happy to take up arms against the creature who had enslaved the world.

He had lost Maximus, as he had lost Lemuria. As he had failed Atlantis. He does not allow the losses to show, in front of Max and Norman, he does not think of the past, or tries not to. What matters now is the prophecy; what matters now is Max's destiny.

He tries not to think about how he could have made anything different. Skullmaster would have found his power one way or another; Virgil's involvement was an unfortunate coincidence. That's what he tells himself, and that's what he will say if he ever does have to tell the story.

He will never truly believe it. Ten thousand years is a long time to remember, but Virgil will keep the memories safe until destiny sets him free.


End file.
